KSOR-TV
KSOR-TV, virtual and VHF digital channel 11, is a Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orre Region, located in Phenac City. The station is owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of 21st Century Fox, as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station KUNP (channel 32). History As a CBS affiliate Channel 11 signed on as KOP-TV on October 24, 1953. Originally owned by locally-based Orre Broadcasters, the station originally operated as a primary CBS and secondary ABC affiliate. It lost the ABC affiliation when KKTV (channel 2) signed on in February 1955, leaving channel 11 as an exclusive CBS affiliate. Over the years, KOP-TV ran nearly the entire CBS schedule, along with some first-run syndicated shows and local shows including daily newscasts. Orre Broadcasters ceased operations in 1982, selling KOP-TV to Gulf Broadcasting. The new owners changed channel 11's callsign on October 4 to KOER-TV, which stood for "O'rr'E R'''egion". The logo that KOER used at the time, which would remain in use until 1995, became known as the "Sunset 11" logo (KOER's logo was slightly modernized in the early 1990s, losing the linear elements at the bottom). KOER was sold to Taft Broadcasting in 1984, as part of a corporate deal; on October 12, 1987, Taft was restructured into Great American Broadcasting after the company went through a hostile takeover by investors. The station's operations did not change significantly under Gulf, Taft or Great American Broadcasting ownership. When Great American Broadcasting filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1993, the company restructured once again and became known as Citicasters late that year. The station changed its callsign to '''KSOR-TV on February 12, 1994 to match its new slogan, "The Spirit of Orre." As a Fox station Due to the company's bankruptcy, Citicasters put some of its stations (including KSOR-TV) up for sale. KSOR was sold to New World Communications on May 5, 1994 for $360 million, with the sale becoming final on September 9 of that year. Just 18 days later, New World announced that most of its stations (those it already owned and those it was in the process of acquiring) would switch their varying Big Three network affiliations (most of the New World stations, like KSOR, were aligned with CBS) to Fox. A major catalyst for the Fox-New World deal was the network's newly signed contract with the National Football League's National Football Conference. As a result of the affiliation agreement, four commercial television stations in the Phenac market each swapped network affiliations at different times. KSOR dropped the CBS affiliation three days after the sale to New World became final on September 12. This switch temporarily left KSOR as an independent station as Fox's affiliation agreement with its existing affiliate KLIO-TV (channel 51) did not expire until December 14—as such, KSOR was the only station involved in the New World deal and Fox's other affiliation agreements with Big Three stations that were byproducts of it that did not switch to Fox directly from another network. In the interim period, the newly-debuted NFL on Fox was broadcast on Channel 51. The CBS affiliation at that time went to former independent KPHE-TV (channel 5). The ABC affiliation was to move from KKTV to KLIO on January 9, 1995, however KLIO began to add ABC shows in stages that August, as KKTV started to gradually excise that network's programs from its schedule (ABC's primetime and sports programs were the only network shows remaining on KKTV shortly before the affiliation formally moved to KLIO). Fox's primetime and sports programming moved to channel 10 on December 15, 1994. As with most other New World stations, KSOR declined to run Fox Kids programming, which instead moved to KKTV and then in 1996, to KXTN (channel 16). KKTV originally chose to become a charter affiliate of The WB upon its January 11, 1995 debut, but that network's programming also went to KXTN when it launched on September 22, 1995. With several top-rated syndicated shows moving to other stations in 1995, KSOR dramatically increased the amount of local newscasts, producing about 45 hours each week. The remaining syndicated programs on the station were rather low-rated, and as a result KSOR did not have good ratings in its early days as a Fox affiliate. Much of the audience for the station's newscasts went to KKTV, which also took on a news-intensive format after losing its ABC affiliation. In the fall of 1995, KSOR added three hours of syndicated talk shows jointly produced by New World and Fox. News Corporation purchased New World Communications, acquiring only its Fox-affiliated stations, in July 1996; the merger was finalized on January 22, 1997, making KSOR an owned-and-operated station of Fox. Fox began to upgrade the station's programming, adding some high-rated off-network sitcoms (such as M*A*S*H, Seinfeld and King of the Hill) as well as higher-rated syndicated court and reality shows. Fox Television Stations purchased KUNP (channel 32) in 2001 as part of its acquisition of United Television (which had owned a 50% stake in UPN, until Viacom bought United's share of the network in 2000) forming the Phenac market's second television duopoly. Although Fox owns both KSOR and KUNP (now a MyNetworkTV station), neither aired the Saturday morning children's program block eventually known as 4Kids TV, which continued to air on KXTN until Fox discontinued its programming agreement with 4Kids Entertainment and replaced the block with the Weekend Marketplace infomercial lineup in December 2008. With the launch of Xploration Station which will replace Weekend Marketplace in the fall of 2014, KSOR for the first time in its history will be clearing its network's entire schedule, although it will occasionally continue to preempt network programming for specials and breaking news coverage (which would result in the preempted programming airing on KUNP). News Operation KSOR-TV presently broadcasts 55 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 9 hours on weekdays, 5½ hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays). Category:FOX affiliated stations Category:Fox affiliated stations Category:Fox Television Stations Category:Channel 11 Category:Former CBS affiliates Category:Former ABC affiliates Category:Former independent stations Category:Former Independent stations Category:Television channels and stations established in 1953 Category:Television stations and channels established in 1953 Category:Phenac Category:Orre